{"id":1223,"date":"2017-01-27T10:00:07","date_gmt":"2017-01-27T10:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/amazonnewsmedia.com\/articles\/?p=1223"},"modified":"2017-01-27T21:44:39","modified_gmt":"2017-01-27T21:44:39","slug":"vaxxed-private-not-secret","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/amazonnewsmedia.com\/articles\/2017\/01\/27\/vaxxed-private-not-secret\/","title":{"rendered":"VAXXED – Private Not Secret – beyond (un)willingness to debate"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\"Andy<\/a>A storm erupted online at 10:33pm on the 25th of January (UK time) over Curzon Cinemas hiring out\u00a0their cinema for a private screening of the controversial movie Vaxxed, which included a discussion afterwards with the disgraced Andrew Wakefield.<\/p>\n

Andy\u00a0Lewis didn’t waste time writing on his Quackometer blog about the dangers of Cursor’s decision to show Vaxxed.\u00a0<\/span>He\u00a0referred\u00a0to the private screening as a “secret” one.\u00a0<\/span>It’s odd that he confuses those two words,\u00a0as he of all people should well know the difference between them:<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Andy<\/a><\/p>\n

Andy Lewis’\u00a0opinion of\u00a0Vaxxed as a “junk conspiracy film of the worst kind. Its message is pure quack propaganda. Its message is one that will harm children”,\u00a0<\/em>has in this case been used to justify crossing an important line: beyond merely objecting to a\u00a0public screening, or debate about that public screening, into actually preventing a private gathering to screen material he objects to.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Like Trump’s rabid hoard, it didn’t take long for Andy Lewis’ many followers\u00a0to take to twitter and attack Curzon Cinemas:<\/p>\n

\"Andy<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Andy<\/p>\n

\"Andy<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Andy<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

Others, like the highly influential Simon Singh and many others, threatened to boycott the cinema if it allowed their venue to be used to show the film:<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Vaxxed<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Andy<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Andy<\/a><\/p>\n

Some\u00a0even went\u00a0further:<\/p>\n

\"Andy<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Andy<\/a><\/p>\n

Additional comments to Curzon CEO Philip Knatchbul by others followed and it appears as if he locked his twitter account as a result. These skeptics also used their influence with the media in an attempt to get journalists interested:<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Andy<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Simon<\/a><\/p>\n

No doubt they privately (or is that secretly?) emailed the “big-hitters<\/a>” as well.<\/span><\/p>\n

We would’ve suggested Curzon Cinemas did a little digging and see if those who threatened not to visit them any longer have actually ever set foot on their premises, or even lived locally, but after fourteen hours of\u00a0online attacks, they bowed to pressure and withdrew the hire of their cinema by 12:39pm on the 26th of January in spite of claiming that “all private hires are unaffiliated with the Curzon brand of any of our venues”.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

According to these evidence-based skeptics, Vaxxed\u00a0is so dangerous, no one must be allowed to see it. Andrew Wakefield must be silenced and no one must interact with him on threat of boycott, or worse.<\/p>\n

\n

\"Andy<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Andy<\/a><\/p>\n

It may be a victory for them, but don’t the skeptics know anything about human psychology? If you truly aren’t aware of this, just Google the American prohibition for example, to see that when\u00a0you ban something, you only make it more appealing. If you have kids, you’ll also know this only too well.<\/p>\n

By forcing Curzon Cinemas to bow to their pressure on the movie Vaxxed they are\u00a0feeding the very beast they claim to fight against. Nothing positive has ever been achieved through stifling freedom of expression. “The answer to bad speech is more speech”<\/em>, remember that?<\/span><\/p>\n

Or it is that for these people, it’s only free speech if it’s in line with their own beliefs? There’s a word for people like that, and it’s definitely not “skeptic”.<\/span><\/p>\n

The only way to combat ignorance or “alternative facts” is through education, and there’s actually a huge missed opportunity here to educate, since Andrew Wakefield would’ve been\u00a0there for a discussion; rather than forcing a cinema to cancel a private hire to show\u00a0Vaxxed, they could’ve bought\u00a0a ticket or two, and debated with the man himself.\"Andy<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Got evidence to support your claims? Even better. They could’ve brought\u00a0that along, and discuss the matter sensibly, politely, and intelligently. Show the audience all the facts, and let them make informed decisions about whatever would have been discussed. And to top it all, they could’ve\u00a0filmed the debate and shared it online to reach even more people.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

But it certainly looks like they preferred to act like an online mob of thugs instead, and that skeptics aren\u2019t capable of debating publicly.<\/p>\n

Of course, if Andrew Wakefield had refused to talk if skeptics were present, or if Curzon Cinemas had called the police to deny them entry, then they’d have had good cause to complain and take to social media.<\/span><\/p>\n

Does this sound a bit too far fetched and unrealistic though? Hardly. Of course its impossible to know if Andrew Wakefield or Curzon Cinemas would’ve acted in such an unethical way, but that’s exactly how Andy “storm master” Lewis behaves when he refuses to engage in ordinary democratic debate, even at meetings billed as public and “open”:<\/span><\/p>\n

“I do not want them allowed admittance and will not speak if they are there.”<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

“Richie\u00a0[Thompson of the BHA] is right on the money and will notify the police before the meeting.”<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Our evidence of this group of skeptics is that they are very loud online but aren’t capable of engaging in polite public debate without resorting to threats and smears, as Andy Lewis did himself<\/a> a few years ago:<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

http:\/\/amazonnewsmedia.com\/articles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/short.mp4<\/a><\/video><\/div>\n
\n


\nWe at ANM would love nothing more than to be proved wrong (with actual facts and evidence, not hearsay and smears). Skeptics are certainly right about one thing: there’s no controversy,\u00a0because that would imply freedom of expression and commenters of all opinions are ruefully showing awareness of the significance of the line that’s been crossed here.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Sadly, yet again, an organisation bowed\u00a0to the pressure of mob rule, and the spirit of open debate was damaged, yet again, in the name of skepticism, transparency, and evidence.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A storm erupted online at 10:33pm on the 25th of January (UK time) over Curzon Cinemas hiring out\u00a0their cinema for a private screening of the controversial movie Vaxxed, which included a discussion afterwards with the disgraced Andrew Wakefield. Andy\u00a0Lewis didn’t waste time writing on his Quackometer blog about the dangers of Cursor’s decision to show […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1252,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,10,4],"tags":[200,25,207,205,204,206,203,2,149,42,202,23,46,199],"class_list":["post-1223","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ethics","category-health","category-politics","tag-andrew-wakefield","tag-andy-lewis","tag-bbc","tag-bha","tag-curzon-cinemas","tag-dr-adam-rutherford","tag-evidence","tag-featured","tag-free-speech","tag-freedom-of-speech","tag-mob-rule","tag-simon-singh","tag-skeptics","tag-vaxxed"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/amazonnewsmedia.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1223","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/amazonnewsmedia.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/amazonnewsmedia.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/amazonnewsmedia.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/amazonnewsmedia.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1223"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/amazonnewsmedia.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1223\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1288,"href":"http:\/\/amazonnewsmedia.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1223\/revisions\/1288"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/amazonnewsmedia.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1252"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/amazonnewsmedia.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1223"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/amazonnewsmedia.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1223"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/amazonnewsmedia.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1223"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}